Published 4:00 am, Wednesday, February 8, 2006

2006-02-08 04:00:00 PDT Baghdad -- Two bombs exploded minutes apart in a crowded Baghdad market on Tuesday morning, in one of two attacks that killed five Iraqis and appeared to be aimed at Shiites celebrating the religious festival of Ashura.

Along with that violence, the American military announced the deaths of four Marines in two separate explosions. Three of the Marines were killed Monday in Hit, northwest of the capital along the Euphrates River, and a fourth was killed elsewhere in Anbar province, the vast desert area west of Baghdad, military officials said without providing further details.

The first bombing on Tuesday took place about 10 a.m. among a group of men selling DVDs and electronics in Bab Sharji, a popular market in central Baghdad. The second exploded 10 minutes later, as the police were rushing to help the wounded, a common tactic of the insurgents. Three people were killed in the blasts and 29 were wounded, including five police officers, Interior Ministry officials said.

Insurgents often strike at crowded markets in Baghdad, but the bombs exploded in an area where Shiite religious tapes and DVDs were being sold, Interior Ministry officials said, and traditional Ashura songs were blasting from portable stereos. The Associated Press reported that the first bomb exploded near a group of people watching a film about Imam Hussein, the seventh century Shiite saint and grandson of the prophet Muhammad, whose death is commemorated in the Ashura festival.

The insurgents also have often started attacks on Shiites in efforts to foment sectarian conflict, and Ashura has been a special target in the past.

With thousands of Shiite pilgrims streaming to the holy cities of Najaf and Karbala, a second bombing took place Tuesday morning that also may have had a sectarian motive: A roadside bomb exploded on the main road that leads south toward Karbala. Two people were killed in the blast, said a spokesman for the police in Babil province.

One of Iraq's leading Shiite religious parties issued an unusual statement on Tuesday protesting the "mass killing" of Shiites in several Iraqi towns on Monday. The Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq said insurgents had set up a fake checkpoint near Taji, north of Baghdad, and used it to abduct and kill more than 30 Shiite civilians.

The statement also described attacks against Shiites in southern Baghdad and Mosul. The Interior Ministry and the police said they were not aware of any of the incidents.

In the troubled Sunni city of Fallujah, west of Baghdad, Sheikh Kamal Nazal, a well-known imam and the leader of the City Council, was shot to death on Tuesday by masked gunmen who opened fire from two cars as he arrived at the City Council building.

The motive for Nazal's killing remained unclear. But it seemed likely that he had been killed by Islamist insurgents, who have issued death threats against anyone cooperating with U.S. or Iraqi governmental authorities in the area.

A number of tribal sheikhs have been killed in recent weeks in and around Fallujah. In December, Nazal ran unsuccessfully in Iraq's parliamentary elections on an independent ticket. Some Islamist insurgent groups had warned Iraqis not to participate in the elections on penalty of death.